A former executive editor at the New York Times and the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Move Your Shadow, Joseph Lelyveld presents this "deeply insightful analysis" (Amartya Sen) of Mahatma Gandhi. Lelyveld's controversial book, which recounts Gandhi's failures as much as his successes, portrays a leader with human flaws, yet one so wholly dedicated to political and social justice that while many could admire him, few could follow him.

"Lelyveld brings to [his argument] an intimate knowledge based on his years as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times in both South Africa and India and the exhaustive research he conducted with a rare and finely balanced sympathy.... Lelyveld has exploded so many myths and heaped up so many defeats that his life of Gandhi could easily be read as an ultimately critical one, however judiciously and carefully constructed ... yet there is no denying Lelyveld's deep sympathy with the man. The picture that emerges is of someone intensely human, with all the defects and weaknesses that suggests, but also a visionary with a profound social conscience and courage who gave the world a model for nonviolent revolution that is still inspiring."—NYReview of Books